


Scarecrow 2.0

by pawnofkings



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Halloween, Humor, Light Angst, M/M, Protective Andrew Minyard, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:40:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26771569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pawnofkings/pseuds/pawnofkings
Summary: Some Ravens fans place a bloodied scarecrow in a number 10 jersey on Fox Tower's front lawn, forgetting that scarecrows are strictly anti-bird. Still, it's unsettling to see... But Neil can always trust his Foxes to help him piss the Ravens off in return.
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 3
Kudos: 185





	Scarecrow 2.0

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally going to be the second day of my '31 Days of Halloween' ficlet collection but it got too long, so I'm posting it on its own. Hope you enjoy!

“Have any of you been outside today?” Nicky asked, half a second after storming into the room.

“Wha-” Kevin said. He’d caught himself on his hands after nearly flinching off his bed when Nicky slammed the door open. Neil was similarly disoriented.

“No?” Nicky checked.

“No. What the fuck’s this about?” Andrew grumbled, burrowing further into his comforter. He was pressed against the wall of the bottom bunk, which Neil had been invited into the night before (an increasingly common occurrence that never failed to warm Neil from the inside out), leaving half a foot of space between their bodies. They didn’t touch when sleeping, and they used their own comforters, but Neil didn’t mind. October was cold, so the big mass of blankets was doing a lot of good.

Neil saw Nicky eyeing them, clearly thinking about the fact that they were sharing a bed, and expected him to make his usual brand of teasing comment. Whatever happened must’ve really rattled him, Neil thought, because he didn’t. “So you guys are saying no one put up the extra scary scarecrow on the front lawn?”

“The what?” Neil questioned. He pulled himself up and leaned against the headboard. “A scarecrow? One of the other athletes must’ve put it up. It _is_ October.”

“That doesn’t explain why…” Nicky said, spreading his arms and sighing. 

“Why what?” Andrew’s voice had taken on a dangerous note. He only really conveyed much emotion when there was a threat to be addressed. Nicky’s countenance in that moment suggested that there was.

Nicky sighed. “It’s wearing a Foxes jersey.” He glanced briefly at Neil, who tensed, anticipating, expecting. “A number ten Foxes jersey.”

Andrew was up and out of bed in the blink of an eye, pulling a sweater over his head and socks onto his feet. Neil joined him, as did Kevin, who looked quite pale. 

“I checked with the upperclassmen, they had no idea”, Nicky continued explaining. “I’ve only seen it from three floors up, so I don’t know - but it sort of had red hair? And uh… It looks… Scary.”

“Great”, Neil muttered, shoving his arms into the sleeves of a hoodie (Andrew’s, but Neil had basically adopted it as his own) and making to follow Andrew out of the room. He had to stop abruptly when Andrew turned around and raised a hand, fingers spread, holding it up just inches from Neil’s chest. Slowly, Andrew let it land, pressing lightly against his ribs. His hazel eyes held Neil’s and the intensity in their gaze halted Neil’s breath in his lungs.

“Stay”, Andrew told him, in no uncertain terms.

“But-”

“No.” Andrew shook his head. “You’re not going outside.”

Neil had a defiant streak but he wasn’t going to protest this time. He raised his own hands in a disarming gesture and stepped back, moving into the kitchen to make some tea. Hopefully he’d be able to see the scarecrow through the window.

The door slammed shut, and Neil figured that Nicky and Kevin must’ve joined Andrew because the dorm descended into absolute silence. With an irritated sigh, unheard by anyone, Neil put on the electric kettle and moved toward the window facing the front lawn.

The sight rendered him speechless. There, three floors down and some distance away, on the dewy green grass of the front lawn, stood - a scarecrow, by all accounts, but wearing, like Nicky had said, a number ten Foxes jersey and what looked to be a reddish-brown wig. Neil’s hand absently reached up to brush through his hair as he looked at it, the stains of red - likely blood, hopefully fake - on the shirt. The thing was turned toward their windows in a clear taunt, and if Neil squinted he thought he could see stains of red on its cheeks as well.

Well. That was upsetting. Neil didn’t so much feel it emotionally as physically, suddenly catching on to his own struggle to breathe, to get enough air down and keep it there for enough time. His hands, gripping his hair, were shaking. When he looked again, the Foxes surrounded the thing, and Andrew was turned toward him.

Not feeling like being seen, Neil stepped away from the window.

When the Foxes returned upstairs, they all piled into the dorm Neil, Andrew, and Kevin shared. Neil waited there, a mug of tea clutched tightly between his palms. The warmth, close to burning, helped to ground him, and by the time Andrew and Matt came into the kitchen to check up on him, he was almost completely okay.

Andrew stood protectively at his side while Matt seemed to struggle not to throw a punch, fists clenched at his sides and feet restlessly moving on the linoleum. “Those fucking bastards-” he said, then stopped himself. “Are you all right, Neil?”

He took a long sip of tea to stall his answer. “Yeah”, Neil said. He could feel Andrew’s reproving look on the side of his face, so he added, “I mean, it’s not fun, but I’ll be fi- okay.”

“Yeah”, Matt said, nodding, “you will.” He sounded as if he’d take personal measures to ensure it if necessary. The tingly sensation in his chest - like _protection_ , like _being cared for_ \- made him uncomfortable and uncertain so he drank more of his tea and tried not to think about it.

“We think it was the Ravens”, Dan said, coming up to the entrance to the kitchen. She leaned against the doorway with her arms crossed, expression pinched. “Or their fucking fans.”

Allison popped up at her side moments later, looking similarly annoyed. “It doesn’t even make sense”, she said, waving one hand. The second the clock had ticked past midnight on October first, her indulgence in Halloween had begun: her athlete-short nails were painted Foxes-orange with intricate black webs drawn on top, and heavy titanium rings adorned her fingers. “They’re _ravens_ and they put up a _scarecrow?_ The entire point of a scarecrow is to keep birds away! It’d make more sense if _we_ put one at Evermore - wait, should we-”

 _“No”,_ Dan replied decisively. Allison pouted. “We won’t stoop to their level. I can’t believe - those _bastards_ -”

“We should take it down”, Matt replied. “And burn it.”

“Sounds like a good idea”, Andrew replied, but Neil’s thoughts had gone in a different direction the second Allison made her suggestion.

“You know what?” Neil said, speaking up for the first time in a minute. “I have a different idea.” He was a bit uncomfortable with everyone’s eyes suddenly on him, the Foxes crowding into the kitchen one by one, but continued. “They wanted to unsettle me, maybe all of us. The only thing we need to do to rebuke them is to _not_ be unsettled.”

Allison tilted her head, then grinned sharply. “We’re reclaiming the scarecrow?”

It wasn’t a difficult task, all things considered. Whoever made the scarecrow had paid attention to detail, Neil thought, almost respecting the effort when he noticed the blue buttons sewn onto its face for eyes. All they really did was replace the blood-stained jersey with a worn, old one of Neil’s (which it still hurt to give up, but he was committed to the bit) and add a few additional decorations to take the fright out of it. For absolute clarity of message, Nicky had written a sign to hang around its neck.  
  
Scarecrow Neil Josten stood outside the Fox Tower, sign around his neck declaring **RAVENS KEEP OUT,** and as they stood in front of it, mouths twitching in amusement, Dan spoke up and said, “Is this not the perfect representation of Neil’s freshman year?”

**Author's Note:**

> I found the prompt for this on tumblr (“So you guys are saying, no one put up the extra scary scarecrow, in the front yard?"): https://fyotpprompts.tumblr.com/post/166863898540/some-halloween-prompts


End file.
